Kevin Rudd to speak on China's new leadership

Mumbai, Dec 4 (IANS) The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has organised a lecture by former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd at the Trident Hotel here Dec 11 on "China's Leadership Transition and the Future of a Rising Power".

"Rudd was recently in Beijing when the Chinese Communist Party Congress was in session and China's new leadership took charge," the leading think tank said, adding he has a deep understanding of Chinese politics, strategy and top intellectual leadership.

"Xi is experienced, confident and self-assured and because of his family's political pedigree, comfortable with the mantle of political leadership," Rudd had said during a lecture in London, speaking about China's incoming president Xi Jinping.

"He's the son of a former Politburo member Xi Zhongxun whose political career mirrored that of Deng Xiaoping -- with all the rises and falls from political favour that his generation endured under the increasingly erratic leadership of Mao Zedong," he said.

"As for Xi's views of the world, in his domestic roles he has had extensive engagement with foreign corporations given that his own administrative career has coincided with a period of China's most intense program of domestic economic reform and global economic engagement," he said.

"By instinct, Xi has an inquiring mind and is deeply interested in the world."

This will be the second IISS Lecture. The first -- also co-hosted by the Oberoi Group -- was delivered by Klaus Regling, chief executive officer of European Financial Stability Facility, on "The Euro and the Future of Europe".